Constant on Blowback

Nearly two centuries before the September 11th attacks, French liberal author Benjamin Constant issued the following prophetic warning:

The force that a people needs to keep all others in subjection is today,
more than ever, a privilege that cannot last. The nation that aimed at
such an empire would place itself in a more dangerous position than the
weakest of tribes. It would become the object of universal horror. Every
opinion, every desire, every hatred, would threaten it, and sooner or
later those hatreds, those opinions, and those desires would explode and
engulf it.

There would certainly be something unjust in turning such fury against an
entire people. An entire country is never guilty of the excesses that its
leader makes it commit. ... But the nations that are the victims of its
deplorable obedience, will not be prepared to acknowledge its secret
feelings, feelings that its conduct belies. They will reproach the
instruments for the crimes of the hand that directs them.